“Demonstrators have marched down Queen Street [Auckland] in front of the controversial Boobs on Bikes parade in an effort to raise awareness of the links between pornography and violence against women and children,” reported The NZ Herald on 20 August 2008.

“Around 60 protesters carried a banner saying “Pornography fuels sexual violence against women and children” as well as signs bearing slogans such as “porn fuels rape“….”

The Society for Promotion of Community Standards Inc. (SPCS) which played no part in the protest, only learnt after the event, via the media, that two charities registered with the Charities Commission – The Auckland Women’s Centre Inc. and Stop Demand Foundation – had organised the demonstration against the Boobs on Bikes event. Both charities had applied for and received a permit from the Auckland City Council for their protest march. Both had been registered as charities with the approval of Mr Trevor Garrett and the Charities Commission Registration Team, on 30 June 2008, two months prior to taking to the streets to target the porn promotion parade and its organiser. A third charity Family First New Zealand (Reg. No. CC10094), registered as a charity on 21 March 2007, issued media releases attacking the porn promotion activities of the Boobs on Bikes Parade promoter.

SPCS, which was not registered as a charity the Charity Commission until 17 December 2008, almost four months after the protest actions of Stop Demand, Auckland Women’s Centre, and Family First NZ against Boobs on Bikes, observed media reports on these charity group led protests. SPCS noted that that none of these three well-respected charities were ever censured, warned or publicly criticised by either the Charities Commission Monitoring and Registration Team, or media commentators for their public attacks on the “porn industry mogul” [name deleted for privacy reasons] who headed the porn-promoting parade.

The NZ Herald reported:

“Stop Demand founder Denise Ritchie lead the march with a megaphone and said those who joined the demonstration were brave.

“Earlier she described the Boobs on Bike parade as free advertising.

“She said a case in June where a 60 year-old Wanganui man was convicted of performing sexual acts on his severely handicapped wife after watching a pornography film with two other men highlights the link between the industry and sexual abuse.

“Ms Ritchie said the Boobs on Bikes parade was advertised as “titillation’ but Mr [name deleted for privacy reasons] business centred on the hardcore industry.

“Ms Ritchie said both groups would direct their message to the thousands of pornography users that would be downtown and to the wider public, that pornography fuelled sexual violence against women and children.

“She said a Treasury working paper estimated sexual violence cost the New Zealand economy $1.2 billion, $827 million being the loss of quality of life for victims, across an estimated 16,500 sex offences in the 2003/04 fiscal year.

“New Zealand’s chief censor, pornography investigators and global research were unanimous in reporting hard core pornography, which made up the bulk of Mr [name deleted for privacy reasons] commercial interests and profits, was increasingly cruel, misogynistic and degrading of women, she said.

“The group’s main message was that sexual violence does not take place in a vacuum, she said.

“It is underpinned by attitudes and messages, many of which are fuelled and normalised by the hard core porn industry.

“In New Zealand, that fueller is self-proclaimed porn king [name deleted for privacy reasons].”

Stop Demand is committed to “raising public awareness through education and advocacy” of such issues as the link between pornography and sexual violence. It has one full-time employee and its total income for the financial year ended 31 March 2011 was $52,000. $40,000 of total income was spent on salary/wages. It received $21,000 in donations and $31,000 in other grants and sponsorships in 2010/11.